


Late Night Thoughts

by Costa_Cat



Series: My wild and maybe not so wonderful Rickly bingo card works [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bingo Card: Tight Lipped, Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes Feels, M/M, Rick and Daryl are safe, Rick has faith in daryl, Rick's third person POV, Rumours, Sad, Strong af daryl, Yas, rick and daryl are husbands, rwg, the MCD tag is for Abe and Glenn, tounges maybe cut out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 18:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8633653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costa_Cat/pseuds/Costa_Cat
Summary: Rick can't sleep the night the Saviours visit Alexandria, and finds his thoughts drift to a certain missing hunter.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey my darlings. This is my second work for the RWG Bingo Game thingy.
> 
> I hope you enjoy. Not beta'd so all mistakes are mine

Rick lies awake the night the Saviours left. It's not like he normally has a full nights sleep, but that's because he can't make himself sleep for more than a few hours, and when he does the nightmares are there, reminding him of every mistake he has ever made. But usually he has no problem actually getting to sleep. His head will hit the pillow, and if Daryl is already in bed his arms will be wrapped around him and off to sleep he is, almost instantly.

 

Ever since the Saviours took Daryl he hasn't been able to instantly sleep like he used too. Which at first he didn't understand because Daryl was always out late so Rick was first in bed, so surely having Daryl not there shouldn't have hindered his ability to sleep. Carol thinks it's worry. But he doesn't think so, because he spends all of his time worried, about Carl, Judith and his whole family but for some reason it never stopped him from sleeping.

 

He didn't understand it until Michonne took him aside and whispered her theory into his ear. She thinks it's because subconsciously he's waiting for Daryl's arm to wrap around him which makes him feel loved and protected, but now that he's not here is brain isn't letting him like he used too. He thinks she's right, was and still is amazed at how she figured that out but when he asked her how she knew it, Michonne got all quiet, before mumbling out one word. 'Denise'. And then they both spent a few moments remembering her and just how much her death fucked Daryl up.

 

So he adapted. Went back to barely sleeping at all each night, and then guilty avoiding the worried glances of his family. He gets used to reluctantly going to bed come nightfall, staring at the ceiling, or out the window, the one with the view that Daryl came to love so much, until he could see the beginnings of dawn dance across the sky, and then sleep would finally take him.

 

But tonight- or more accurately- this morning is different. Sun rise has come and go, and he still lies awake. He just can't stop his mind form drifting back to Daryl yesterday. He looked exhausted, hurt, humiliated and so fucking done with everything that Rick almost lost it right there and then. He tried to talk to him but Negan wouldn't even let them look that way. Turns out it didn't matter because Daryl, the man he loves, his boyfriend- no his _husband_ wouldn't make eye contact or even look in any of their family's direction. He had just done whatever he was told, completely silently and without even a hint of protest in his attitude.

 

Rick's mind had been reeling, still is. What on Earth were they doing to him over there? They're definitely beating him. Rick knows that much. Can tell by the marks on his face and there's probably so many more hidden under the horrific jumper he had been wearing. Can tell by the way he walks, limping ever so slightly. Can tell by the way he kept putting his left hand protectively around his waist, but taking it away when Negan looked at him.

 

But all of that still isn't the most concerning thing. The thing that has him still awake, having not slept at all, is the fact that throughout the whole ordeal Daryl didn't speak, grunt or growl. Not a single sound came from his mouth. Which set him on edge more than anything else ever has. Because it had been just so unlike Daryl that Rick knows there has to be something seriously up. Something horrible restricting his husband from speaking. And Rick had heard the rumours. The whispers brought from the Hill Top that are now steadily working their way around Alexandria.

 

Someone from the Hill Top had heard, somehow, that the Saviours had taken a prisoners tongue out. Cut it straight out with a pair of gardening sheers. That the person is still alive, but can't talk at all, can't make sounds past incoherent garbling.

 

Rick tries to ignore them. Tries to tell himself that it can't be possibly be Daryl, not his Daryl, it just can't be. But the more time he spends here, staring out the window that Daryl loved so much, the more it makes sense. He can't help but admit that it _could_ be him.

 

Because his husband would have talked back. Maybe scoffed, or grunted, it doesn't matter what he would of done because it would have been _something_ but he didn't. He just stood there, completely silent doing everything that Negan told him too. And the very few times that Daryl had found himself without Negan attached to him like a shadow, he avoided Rick like the freaking plague. Almost as if he didn't want Rick to find out something, scared that he would try to make him talk when he couldn't. Maybe even ashamed.

 

Rick only got close to him once. It had been too much but not nearly enough at the same time. He hadn't been close enough to touch, to inhale his scent. Not close enough for Rick to feel even a little bit of comfort and reassurance. The only he thing he felt was sick to his stomach. Because he _had_ been close enough to see. Close enough to see the damage Negan is doing. Bags under his eyes that are deep and dark. Eyes that are slightly glazed over. Balance that was a little off. Legs stiff as a board. Breathing hitched. Expression twisted in pain.

 

Rick may not have been close enough to really have his husband back, but he had been close enough to see that that they are trying to break Daryl Dixon. Trying every single trick in the book. Sleep deprivation being evident in the way was acting. Starvation too, given the way he swayed, almost looking as weak as a kitten. It is obvious they are beating him, somewhat regularly too. Also looks like they've kept him hidden away in the dark. And the way they paraded him around, all but screaming 'look at what we've done!' Rick is willing to bet that humiliation is also on the list of horrible things that they are putting Daryl through.

 

They are doing all of this, and probably far more horrific things to break Daryl Dixon. But it won't happen. They won't break him, it's impossible. His husband won't break under Negan's torture, and Rick isn't sure if that makes him worry more, or less.

 

The sun has risen, his family along with it and Rick gets out of bed to sooth the tears of his daughter, who has been crying more after Daryl was taken, more after Glenn and Abraham breathed their last breath and garbled their last words.

His mind still reeling from the revelations of his late night thoughts.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it, leave a comment and kudos if you did, and didn't I don't mind.
> 
> My Instagram is dark_meadows_ and it's basically just twd and rickly trash.
> 
> Until next time my darlings 
> 
> Peace


End file.
